Method of treating cheese and product resulting therefrom



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METHOD OF TREATING CHEESE AND PRODUCT RESULTING THEREFROM Filed July l2. 1923 h ...ha

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EEEGD @El TREATING CHEESE AD lPROJDUI BESUlI/.llllllil'Gl THEREFROM.

, Applikation tiled July 12, 1923. 'crisl No. 651,17.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it' known that l, leslie C. Poems, a citizen of the United States, residiig at New York cit2 in the county ot New ork and State of ew York, have invented certain new and usei'ul Improvements in Methods of Treating Cheese and Products Resulting Therefrom, of which the followino is a specication.l

This invention relates' to a method of treating cheese, and to the improved product resulting therefrom.

llt has become customary to transform cheese from its originel orm in. which it niust be made, into iso-called loavesfor greater convenience in marketing.

the cheese, such as Daisy, long-horn, Cheddar, etc. is rst cleaned and then cooked until it hecomes of a conor plastic enough to ln doing this,

sistency that will dow, he forced hy hand into a form or hon mold to take cti a loaf shape. This loaf is then wrapped in tin-toil. ln this loait form, cheese is being sold in great quantities in groceries, delicatessen stores and elsewhere on account o1? its losing more easily handled hy the store-keeper than was possible in the large 4 cheese as originally made.

v likened it to a co d lit is recognized hy those who know, that the toed value ot cheese worked over in this manner, is -greatl lessened, and some have Welsh rarebit, which is rendered unwholesome as a diet. .in short, a great deal more is sacrificed than is gained hy this treatment, since iior instance, the original davor et the ineri'can cheese is changed, and furthermore, its character as a whole has become changed in every wa greatly to its detriment rather than its a vantage. ln working the American cheese over into loaf term, it has never heen sucessfully .marketed in sizes less than live pound loaves. While one of the objects of my invention is to make the cheese into single pounds and fractions of a pound, it is also an object to do so without cooking it over, thereby changing the composition, texture, and entire character of the product in conse uence.

y metliod of treatment, it may be said, is to rearrange the constituent butter tat globules, and, in a measure 'at least, to make them more or less uniform in size, without melting or cooking the cheese or adding anything except a sufiicient amount of water to restore what has been expressed out of it during the process of treatment, and finally compressing and shaping the mass of cheese treated into a more or less com act form and finally discharging it in predetermine sizes from the machine, ready for sale, without the necessity of cutting when sold.

ln my method ci treatment, they cheese is neither melted nor cooked, nor is an heat applied; and that is what is meant y the term uncooked as employed in some of the claims.

lin my treatment also li am very careful not to disintegrate un uly the constituent globules, as it-is desirable to preserve thev grain of the cheese in the completed product.

ln the accompanying drawing The drawings are illustrative of one of perhaps a large number of mechanical appliances i'or carrying out my improved invention, and :tor the formation ot :my im.- proved product, in which Fig. l is a sectional view through the device :tor forming the cheese into shreds; Fig. 2 is a side elevation, partly in section, of the device for forming the cheese into cakes; Fig. 31 is a view of the reticulated plate; and Fig. i is a perspective view of a carton of cheese as it 1s so d.

After removing the cheese cloth coverin from the cheese in its original form, and then cleaning it, the cheese is breiten into chunks, and :ted into the rece tacle l, where it is forced forward hy t e screw conveyor 2 to the nozzle, under a pressure of about two hundred (200) pounds to the squareinch, although of course, that is suhject to variations, an out through the perorations in the reticulated plate 3.

The cheese comes out in continuous shreds, resembling macaroni or spaghetti, only it is solid instead to tubular,

Both the screw-conveyor 2 and the reticulated plate are preferably made of aluminum, and it has been suggested that the superior taste ot the cheese thus produced is duc in part to the contact and pressure of the aluminum screw and plate with which it comes in contachin its assage through the machine under the hig pressure to which it is subjected.Y

After the cheese has been thus highly tid - intosizes as small as a poun whatever except the contacto compressedand formed into shreds, itis generally sprayed with water just sufiicient to restore any loss of moisture, resulting from the compression or expression of the cheese.

After having been thus preplared, the final operation is to feed the c eese to a screw conveyor 4, whence it is forced under pressure through an outlet nozzle 5, and in contact with b ades 7 of a cutter 8, which cuts it into measured len hs of, say a pound, just as fast as it is ed into the cutting machinery. lIf desired, the cheese can be cut into smaller sizes of say one-half or one-fourth pound, by .means of one or two wires or similar devices 9 stretched across the. outlet or nozzle of the machine. e

There the lengths of cheese are received on a table or endless conveyor 10, and wrapped in paraiiine paper or other wrapper, and placed in cartons, if desired, for t e market. f

The resultant ofthis ly formed chunk of cheese of any size desired, no matter how small, from a pound or two pounds or several pounds, for that matter, to a small fraction of a pound. y

The expressing -and shredding and recompacting results in making the butter fat lobules more 'uniform in size than heretoore, and in re-dis-tributing them more uniformly and homogeneousl'' throu hout the entire mass of cheese. he pro uct thus formed is superior in grain, texture, taste, and keeping qualities. It loses nothing in its ercentage of Water and fat by reason of t is treatment, and it shows a negligible reduction in total count of bacteria by actual chemical analysis. y The resultant product not only exudes from the machine in compact and homoneous form, and has a grain, but also the Eloitter fat globules and vcurd have become more or less uniformly and evenly re-distributed in an organized mass. It also `has a superior taste or davor, and more creamy consistency due to more even distribution of the butter fats, it is less perishable, or in other words keepsA longer; it does not crack, disinte ate o r mold during ordinary exposure to t e air as readily as does the American Daisy and other cheese when displayed for sale in stores. My present product is the result of a successfu effort made to form an American cheese, b machinery, half-pound or quarter pound or thereabouts, andready for the market with practicall no handling the machine, it thus being a thorouhly sanitary treat- 4 ment from start to finis From the foregoing, it is understood that each loaf of cheese is wrapped and inserted in a carton as shown in 1g. 4 so that the handling of thev cheese is thoroughly saniules, of which t process 1s a compacttary, and involves lesshandling for packing and shippinv, and it is more easily kept in the ice-box o store-keeper or consumer. It will be understood that the apparatus employed is not claimed in this a pllcation, an is only illustrated and described as one of many different possible mechanical means* for carrying out my improved method or process, which, ina word, consists in the reaking up of the larger butter fat globcheese is mainly-composed, so that all of the constituent globules are of more nearly uniform size, and the redistribution and re-or anization of all of these ,globules to the en that they are distributed with greater uniformity and homogeneity throughout the entire mass of cheese.

In order to accomplish this, means confined to shredding or of the cheese, as the means for I am by no Hennissing breaking up the larger butter fat globules to obtain substantia uniformit of size, this being but one of many possi 1e mechanical means for the purpose.

-I claim: L

1. An uncooked cheese having its butter fat nglobules of substantially uniform size eve y distributed throughout, and compacted into a substantially solid mass.

2. An improved method of treating cheese which conslsts in expressing it throu h a erforated late under `high ressure,w ere= y to shre the same, there y breaking u the large butter vfat globules so that a globulesfwill be more or less uniform in size, thereafter compacting the cheese in its shredded state into a sohd mass and dis.- charging it in the form of a continuous rib- 'bon of predetermined transverse area, and

automatically cutting the termined lengths.

3. An improved method of treating cheese which consists in expressin it through a perforated plateY under high pressure, whereby to s red the same, thereby making the butter fat globules more or less uniform in size, spraying the' shredded material with water, thereafter compactin the .cheese in its shredded state into a solid mass, and discharging it in the form of a continuous ribbon of predetermined transversel size and form, and automatically cutting the ribbon into predetermined lengths.

4. An improved method of treating cheese which'1 first consists in shredding it, sprinkling the shredded product, then forcing this product through a shapm orifice under pressure from which it exu es in the form of a continuous ribbon, and finally cutting the ribbon into predetermined lengths mechanically.

5. A continuous recessv for treating cheese'and the like, w ich consists in forming it into continuous shreds, whereby the Vribbon into predebutter fat globules ere made more or less uniform in size, then forcing -the shreds together under pressure into a, solid mass, and

causing it to exude in the form of e con- 5 tinuous ribbon.

6. A continuous process for treating cheese and the like, comprising forming it into continuous shreds, whereb the butter fat globules are made more or ess uniform 1Q in size, and then forcing the shreds together under pressure into a, solid. mass.

7. An improved methodof treating cheese which consists in breaking it up under such conditions as to'rearrange the globules of butter fat and render them ap roximately uniform lin size and more eve y distributed throughout the mass and then compacting into a solid mass, all the steps of the method being employed without the application of heat.

In testimony whereof I afx my si etui-e.

- SAAC C. POP ER. 

